"benb" wrote in message
news

"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote in message
...

As Brian said, they are late bloomers, and growers will sometimes
manipulate their light to make them look more saleable in the stores. You
didn't mention where you live, but here in upstate NY (zone 5/6,
depending on luck), they bloom in early September, and if dead flowers
are removed, they'll continue up until frost. Be patient, and give them
some thick mulch (straw, shredded bark) in the fall. They don't always
survive the frost. Here, they are more successful if planted near the
house, where the foundation warms up earlier than the rest of the yard.

Hi Joe,

We're in the UK, south-west. If this year is anything like last year, we
won't get the first frost until late October, (although who knows what's
going to happen with the current weather conditions), so maybe there is
still time for them to flower.
I can't remember what happened to them last year, whether we left them out
or put them in the garage. I seem to have this image of them still being
on the windowsills when we got the first snow in February. I think they
either rotted or got cut down to the stumps, but then started re-growing
in early March.

Ben


Some of the best books about plants come from the UK, for obvious reasons.
You should buy some, or borrow some from the library. There's a lot to like
about mums, and methods (which involve) work for maximizing their blooming,
but you'll need to read about these things. It would be inappropriate for
anyone to type all of it here.